What should the Rams do about Gregg Williams?

[r8rh8rmike]

Dude took money from a guy WHO STOLE FROM THE NFL AND WAS CONVICTED OF DOING SO. AFTER THE CONVICTION!

That's pretty friggin dumb in my book.

Yep, what Williams and the Saints did was take things beyond what is apparently the "norm" in the NFL. To expand the program and include unsavory characters from the outside and allow them to be active participants is indeed dumb, and problematic on multiple levels.

The Rams need to focus on re-building a once proud franchise, not on season long damage control.

[ZiaRam]

Fire him? You guys kidding me? I see no reason why we should do anything of the sort for two reasons.

1. This happened with the saints

2. This is a common place thing that happens in the NFL... Goddell is going to use Williams as a example and scapegoat in his own self rightousness.

I'm telling every team including our Rams have done this within the last decade...

[Fettmaster]

I voted to wait until the league imposes its penalties, then deciding what to do with Williams. You don't just up and fire a guy for something he did in a previous job. That would seem like a hasty attempt to save face, and we all know that's not really Kroenke's MO. Barring an extended suspension from the league, I think Williams will be brought back. The story is disappointing, but its not the black mark on the Rams organization that some people are making it out to be. I'd say it affects the integrity of the Saints, and NFL culture as a whole more than it does the Rams.

[r8rh8rmike]

And the hits just keep coming. Now there are former Bills players who are saying Williams had a bounty system that paid players for injuring opponents. From an ESPN article:

Meanwhile, former Buffalo Bills safety Coy Wire told The Buffalo News that Williams promoted bonuses for injuring opponents while he was the head coach in Buffalo.

"There was financial compensation," Wire told the newspaper, which also cited three other anonymous defensive players who confirmed the existence of a bounty program during Williams' time with the Bills.

This thing just continues to escalate and it looks like the NFL is going to keep on investigating. Do the Rams really want to be a part of this?

[Azul e Oro]

Regardless of the punishment, I think The Rams have to fire him. Leaving the moral question aside (which I find hard to do), what's to be gained by keeping this guy other than a cloud of suspicion hanging over the team & quite possibly putting current & future Rams at risk of onfield retaliation since it seems that a lot of players (Warner, Troy Brown, for egs) even think a pretty serious line was crossed with the payments for causing injury.

And who really thinks it's a certainty, knowing what we know about Fisher's ultra-aggressive style, that this wasn't happening in Tenn as well, with or without his direct participation ? If the code of silence/denial among Titan players is broken, The Rams could be looking for a new HC as well. It's even harder to believe that Fisher didn't know about the system his BFF, Williams, employed at every other team where he worked for more than a year or that this scandal was looming. The lateral move to the Rams always seemed odd to me, their friendship notwithstanding.Not, however, buying the argument that having McGinnis onboard in proof that Fisher knew about the scandal. There are former coordinators and HCs working in subordinate positions on teams across the league.

I also think the Spags hiring by NO makes it look like the Saints HC/FO knew it was coming as well. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the squeaky clean Spagnuolo is the Saints head coach before the start of the season.Sounds like Benson has thrown Loomis to the wolves & these e-mails connecting Payton to Bush's shady agent are almost more serious than the in-house pay-4-injury thing,imo. We are talking about game-fixing there.

[Nick]

I'd be tempted to wait and see what the league does in response to their investigation before making a decision, but I wouldn't blame the Rams for cutting ties prior to that. This is a pretty bad PR situation, even though it happened with another team.

[BarronWade]

I think you guys are over-reacting

Gregg Williams wanted his players to play smash mouth (literally) football. He did it the complete wrong way by this whole "bounty" scandal.

As reported he has agreed to speak to the NFL inc. rodger godell about the whole situation and that likely means his penalty won't be that severe since he is cooperating with the league

Also anything about a suspension will be regular season games; so he will be able to coach during camp and pre-season to lay out the schemes and mcginnis can coach the games williams might be suspended for.

No i dont want a bounty; but i do want our D to play smash mouth football after spags pansy defense; so i want Williams no matter what.

[PeoriaRam]

I think you guys are over-reacting

Gregg Williams wanted his players to play smash mouth (literally) football. He did it the complete wrong way by this whole "bounty" scandal.

As reported he has agreed to speak to the NFL inc. rodger godell about the whole situation and that likely means his penalty won't be that severe since he is cooperating with the league

Also anything about a suspension will be regular season games; so he will be able to coach during camp and pre-season to lay out the schemes and mcginnis can coach the games williams might be suspended for.

No i dont want a bounty; but i do want our D to play smash mouth football after spags pansy defense; so i want Williams no matter what.

So what do we do about convicted felon Mike Ornstein's involvement in the bounty system. For the last time, this was far from business as usual. Williams had the Saints circumvent the salary cap and take hit orders from outsiders.

[NJ Ramsfan1]

Regardless of the punishment, I think The Rams have to fire him. Leaving the moral question aside (which I find hard to do), what's to be gained by keeping this guy other than a cloud of suspicion hanging over the team & quite possibly putting current & future Rams at risk of onfield retaliation since it seems that a lot of players (Warner, Troy Brown, for egs) even think a pretty serious line was crossed with the payments for causing injury.

And who really thinks it's a certainty, knowing what we know about Fisher's ultra-aggressive style, that this wasn't happening in Tenn as well, with or without his direct participation ? If the code of silence/denial among Titan players is broken, The Rams could be looking for a new HC as well. It's even harder to believe that Fisher didn't know about the system his BFF, Williams, employed at every other team where he worked for more than a year or that this scandal was looming. The lateral move to the Rams always seemed odd to me, their friendship notwithstanding.Not, however, buying the argument that having McGinnis onboard in proof that Fisher knew about the scandal. There are former coordinators and HCs working in subordinate positions on teams across the league.

I also think the Spags hiring by NO makes it look like the Saints HC/FO knew it was coming as well. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the squeaky clean Spagnuolo is the Saints head coach before the start of the season.Sounds like Benson has thrown Loomis to the wolves & these e-mails connecting Payton to Bush's shady agent are almost more serious than the in-house pay-4-injury thing,imo. We are talking about game-fixing there.

I can respect your opinion about the need to fire the guy- it's a fair argument. As for the rest of your comments- Jesus, talk about conspiracy theories. I think you're jumping to conclusions and making some outrageous assumptions.

Number one, Sean Payton is not going to be fired. This is the equivalent of killing an ant with a sledgehammer. The Saints will be fined as an organization and will probably lose some draft picks. As head coach, he'll take a PR hit for not having better organizational control. Payton will distance himself from this episode, and with the principal orchestrator (Williams) gone, that won't be hard to do. Secondly, to raise the question of Jeff Fisher possibly being somehow involved with such a scheme when Williams was in Tennesssee is terribly irresponsible. It is salacious speculation at best and outright character assassination at worst. Jeff Fisher has NEVER been linked to anything even remotely inappropriate during his tenure as a coach. And third, I don't believe Saints Owner Tom Benson has thrown anyone to the wolves. His reputation spanning decades in the league is excellent.

The thing I find ironic is that no one is assessing blame to a group of people who are as culpable as anyone and that is the players' union. If this was as widespread as some would have us believe, why didn't more players speak out against it? Why would players knowingly allow a coach in the league to run a system in three different cities which encouraged injuring their fellow players? Seems to me if they were that concerned about each other as the union always leads you to believe, this would have been exposed a lot sooner. I have absolutely no tolerance for players who keep their mouths shut and only spill "secrets" when they're traded, waived or have a personal axe to grind.

[ManofGod]

Dang, I'm glad I don't have friends like you guys, at the first sign of trouble you are ready to jump ship. This is sad.

[Ram Mar Ram]

I personally think it will be a mistake to fire the guy now, and IMO a mistake to fire him at all. What Rams need to care about is doing what it takes to start winning football games, keeping Williams would fit that agenda. And for those that suggest he is going to continue the practice, is an absurd notion after the sh*t storm he is about to recieve.

As Avenger pointed out, Mcginnis can fill in on a temp basis

[xkidflowx]

EXACTLY thanks manofgod... you guys act like he's gonna do it again.. he may be dirty but sheesh we might need this toughness in the lou.. if anything we can cut ties with him if he doesnt do good this season

[Fortuninerhater]

I was on the fence about this originally, believing that we should wait until the league hands down it's verdict. But I have come to the conclusion that firing him now may be the best thing this organization can do for itself.

I believe that as long as Greg Williams is running our defense, we will be under an inordinate amount of scrutiny. Fair or not.

God forbid anybody gets hurt and has to leave the game following direct contact from one of our defensive players.

Everybody in a Rams uniform will be under a microscope, and that alone may adversely affect how we play defense. We may become the softest defense in the league for trying to difuse the overall perception of Greg Williams.

Or conversely, we may become the most penalized for what may be borderline to legitimate hits. Either way, it's bad for us.

So to that end, it may be better to cut ties before this thing begins.

[PeoriaRam]

Dang, I'm glad I don't have friends like you guys, at the first sign of trouble you are ready to jump ship. This is sad.

If it's self-inflicted sure, you reap what you sow.

Look. If Williams were to somehow survive this and then start up a bounty program here and the NFL were to find out (don't feed me that "he wouldn't be that dumb" crap. He is based on what evidence the NFL is providing), we'd be facing another lost decade after the NFL was done with us. No thanks.

[PeoriaRam]

EXACTLY thanks manofgod... you guys act like he's gonna do it again.. he may be dirty but sheesh we might need this toughness in the lou.. if anything we can cut ties with him if he doesnt do good this season

He's done it in Buffalo and Washington and went so far as to let a guy who had been convicted of stealing from the league call in headhunting missions for games. This track record does not exactly suggest Williams is going to observe the letter or spirit of league law during his time here.